Amelioration of diabetic nephropathy in mice by a single intravenous injection of human mesenchymal stromal cells at early and later disease stages is associated with restoration of autophagy.

"Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participateThe experiments were conducted in accordance with the National Institutes of Health guidelines for the care of animals. The animal studies came from the project of "Effect and Mechanism of Mesenchymal Stem Cell in the Treatment of Diabetic Complications” and was approved by the Laboratory Animal Ethical and Welfare Committee of Hebei Medical University (Approval No. IACUC-Hebmu-2021035, Date: 8 December 2021). Consent for publicationNot applicable. Competing interestsT O’Brien is a Director and Equity holder in Orbsen Therapeutics. Timothy O’Brien is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal Stem Cell Research & Therapy, and he declares that he is not involved in the peer review nor decision making of this article. MD Griffin reports honoraria from the American Society of Nephrology; Hebei Medical University, China; Théa Pharma Ltd., Ireland; and Novo Nordisk; research funding from Orbsen Therapeutics Ltd.; and advisory roles as an Editorial Board member for the journals Transplantation and Frontiers in Pharmacology and an Associate Editor for Mayo Clinic Proceedings. The rest of the authors declare they do not have any competing interests. Competing interests T O’Brien is a Director and Equity holder in Orbsen Therapeutics. Timothy O’Brien is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal Stem Cell Research & Therapy, and he declares that he is not involved in the peer review nor decision making of this article. MD Griffin reports honoraria from the American Society of Nephrology; Hebei Medical University, China; Théa Pharma Ltd., Ireland; and Novo Nordisk; research funding from Orbsen Therapeutics Ltd.; and advisory roles as an Editorial Board member for the journals Transplantation and Frontiers in Pharmacology and an Associate Editor for Mayo Clinic Proceedings. The rest of the authors declare they do not have any competing interests."

"Funding This study was supported by the Graduate Innovation Funding Project of Hebei Province (CXZZBS2021072) Hebei Medical University and funded by Natural Science Foundation of China (81801278), China Scholarship Council (201608130015), Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province (H2019206637), Key Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province (H2020206557), Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province (H2015206409), Hebei University Science and technology research project (ZD2019049), Overseas researcher Program in Hebei Provincial Department of human resources and social security (C20190509),Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province (H2023206266). MDG and TO’B are also supported by grants from the European Commission [Horizon 2020 Collaborative Health Project NEPHSTROM (Grant number 634086; TO’B, MDG)] and Science Foundation Ireland [CÚRAM Research Centre (Grant number 13/RC/2073_P2; TO’B, MDG) and Investigator Programme (Grant number 15/IA/3136; TO’B)] and by the European Regional Development Fund."